“The bill actually harms the equal pay cause by providing much fewer protections than the current federal law does,” said Shannon Williams, director of Equal Pay Today, a campaign led by the women’s advocacy group Equal Rights Advocates.
Washington Post: Mississippi’s equal pay bill could worsen the wage gap, critics say
April 11. 2022
ERA Attorney and Director of our Equal Pay Today initiative Shannon Williams is featured in a Washington Post article today about an “unequal pay” bill in Mississippi.
Williams said it would write into law some of the very practices that perpetuate pay discrimination.
“I don’t know why we’re calling it an equal pay bill,” she said. “It actually gives employers more excuses to get away with paying women less.”
Women of color in Mississippi “are facing compounded wage gaps not just because of their gender, but because of their race,” Williams said. “This bill will not help that.”
Williams and other equal pay advocates worry that if signed into law, the bill will codify discriminatory practices.
As she said: “Anybody who really calls this an equal pay bill is probably not familiar with the things that are contributing to the wage gap.”
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